I hate cold with a passion. From November to April I count an additional +20 minutes for each dressing session as I absolutely have to have leggings under everything. (Even under thighs I’m wearing another pair of thighs. Yes, you can fit a pair of nylon under the cotton ones.) Safe to say, I hate cold.

Despite this for my birthday I received a gift which surprised me a bit. A wellness voucher, including cryotherapy. I might have been better of if I didn’t check what exactly it was before going because I managed to stress out for 1 month before actually getting to the spa. Why would anyone want to do this? Basically: they cool you down to -120-170°C. No, I’m not kidding.

There are huge benefits to this actually (especially when using regularly): it helps improve the bloodstream, helps inflammations and muscle pains and has some effect against cellulite as well. A pretty good deal in my opinion.

I arrived to the spa yesterday, shaking on the insides and tried to get as much fun out of the pools and saunas as possible. It’s not advised to use any of the sorts after the treatment as you need to give you body time to warm back up. However working out is quite advised afterwards (so I should have bought shoes for gym, but never mind that now.)

A bit before 7 I walked down to the room and we could start on the fun. The „chamber” that you are being put into looks like a tanning booth. You need to wear thick wool slippers and either your bathing suit or underwear. Don’t even try with wet bathing suit, trust me. You’ll have to change into the normal, daily wear undies, but there was no damage to them at all. It’ completely safe for the clothing.

So here we go, you jump into the booth and a small elevator raises you high enough that your head is sticking out. You’ll also need to put out your hands, so basically you are in a meerkat pose. The lady who was leading the treatment stayed there, talked to me and generally kept my mind off the procedure.

They blow liquid nitrogen into the chamber for a certain number of seconds, then you rest for another set of seconds. In my case we went with 2 seconds of injection followed by 25 seconds of resting time. In hindsight, I might have been able to handle a bit more, but it was okay for a first time. You don’t immediately get the max cold, but they lower it throughout the course, my final was -150°C.

The whole procedure takes 200 seconds and I have to tell you it’s not bad at all. At the very end I was shaking like crazy, but not in that bad, watery-wintery type of way. This was much better than taking a dip in the ice cold water after a sauna session (to be honest, I can’t do that at all. Maybe about thigh high, then I run screaming.) I did feel some dry-stretching feeling, especially on my legs after the treatment but it was gone in under a minute, leaving only a weird tingling behind.

All in all, if anyone is looking for a more extreme treatment option, definitely try this one. It’s a lot of fun and definitely worth it. And it’s always great to see someone’s face if they receive it as a surprise.